This One Chance
by luvsdragons
Summary: It has been almost a year since the earthquakes devastated Wasteland. A new toon,Ellie appears and around the same time strange events begin to occur that threaten Wasteland's residents, as well as suspicious activity. -I do not own Epic Mickey or it's characters. I do own OCs.
1. A Turn of Events

A chocolate brown female fox Toon looked into her spell book one last time. Nervously closing it, she took a deep breath.

"Come on Amelia," a sandy brown female fox said brightly.

"I don't know," Amelia whispered. She could feel her heart jumping and her head gradually heating up with stress.

"You can do this. After all, this is just practice, an experiment. You don't have to take the real test until next week."

The light brown fox was Amelia's best friend since they were young. As Amelia progressed in her teachings, her friend was always there, supporting her to fullest.

Amelia looked over at the light brown fox. "Then I don't have to do this?"

"Of course you don't, but you should. You know very well that you should. At least try."

Amelia was getting ready to take one of her final tests. As a sorceress apprentice, she must be able to demonstrate specific skills and spells in order for her mentor to pass her to more difficult teachings.

She once again took a deep breath and then began. She started to move her hands in an intricate motion and then started to chant her spell.

-()-

Just then, something supernatural appeared behind them. The light brown fox turned her head to see what it was, but she suddenly felt force come upon her, trowing her backwards, into what appeared to be some kind of portal.

-()-

When she opened her eyes, there was nothing but a dark purple hue that surrounded her. The fox cautiously turned her head, looking for anything. It was kind of amazing in this space where everything was weightless, including herself. However, it was short lived. Soon, the arms and hands of gravity grab her and pull her down towards the world.

She fell faster with every passing moment and began to panic. _Where will I land? _She thought, looking down as continued to plummet through the sky and pick up speed.

Something green and brown started to come into view.

_Ground! _She cheered mentally, relived that she wasn't falling forever, but that relief died quickly as she considered the speed she was going. _Wait... Ground?!_

The earthly shades approached and enlarge quickly and then, _thud! _Everything had gone black in an instant, as if someone had flipped a light switch.

-()-

The light brown fox's eyes shot open and she sat up, gray eyes searching around for any type of familiarity. She remembers that she was falling onto something, but what? _Why am I in a bedroom?_

The bedroom was smaller in size, no bigger than the one she has at home. The walls were painted and eggshell white and had a stained oak trim. The floor was also oak as well as the small table and chairs that sat in the corner. I reminded her of her room some, except she had dressers instead of tables and chairs. The window to her right showed that was probably morning, around 8:30, maybe?

"Oh, you're awake. Thank goodness," a voice with a British accent called from another room.

The fox looked at the doorway, wondering who exactly was talking to her, but she did not say a word.

The Toon that had address her before emerged from the doorway. He was green, wearing an orange flight suit and bowler hat.

The fox observed the character, she could have sworn she had never seen him in her life, but something seems familiar about him.

"I am sorry if I had startled you, dear," he said.

"It's fine."

"I don't believe we had met before. I'm Gus," the character says, holding out his hand.

"I'm Ellie," she says quietly while returning his handshake.

"A pleasure."

-()-

"Interesting. You don't even know why you're down here?" Gus asks, puzzled about the story she had told him.

Ellie shakes her head. "I think Amelia's spell book fell down here too. I thought I had seen it."

"Oh yes! Wait here," Gus heads into the other room and brings back two items, "do these belong to you?"

Ellie recognizes the two items that Gus holds in his hands: Amelia's spell book and her experimental paint brush. "Yes, well kinda. Those belong to Amelia. Has anybody seen her?"

"Well," Gus began, "if she came down here with you, then we would have most likely have found her as well. I will ask the others to look and ask around anyway. Here, you might as well hold onto them."

She takes the two items and sets the paint brush on the end table. Amelia had never let her see the book for some reason. Of course, Ellie had never questioned it. Amelia was her best friend, and this did fell like snooping a little. However, she opened the book anyway, wondering if there something that could possibly help her.

-()-

**Thank you for reading! Please review.**


	2. Not so Simple as That

"So, now that you've explained everything, and I've told you everything I know... Now what's next?" Ellie asked as she and Gus walked down sidewalk of Ostown.

"Well, we should try to find Oswald. He may or may not have a better understanding of what is happening," Gus explained.

"Okay."

The made their way to a ginormous entryway that was made of sturdy pale bricks and cement. Inside, there was a projector screen that could take them to Mean Street North.

"Okay, so I know you explained this, but how does it work again-" Ellie was cut off by the yells of another toon.

They both turned to see another Gremlin rushing towards them. This one was orange-colored and wearing blue jumpsuit. Not only that,but he seemed to be in a hurry to say something because he does not stop to do anything but talk to Gus.

Sensing the urgency of the whole situation, Ellie respectfully takes a step back to allow the Gremlin some room to talk with Gus.

He comes to a sudden stop, brown eyes filled with panic. "Gus! You will never believe this, seriously you won't!"

"What is it, Hyperion?" Gus asked.

"Gremlins Sunstar and Bennet have been reported missing!"

"What? They were fine this morning. Where could they have possibly gone?"

Hyperion shrugged, "I don't know. Bennet went to look for scarp metal so we could finish repairing the windmill from the storm. After a few hours, Sunstar went to go look for him because he never came back and you were still at the village. Neither of them ever returned though and the village is literally shaking with anxiety!"

Gus crossed his arms and shook his head. He knew what this meant and was torn between two very important tasks : watching his village and trying to help this fox girl. Fortunately, most problems have a solution. Gus just needed to find it, and then an idea came. It was a last resort solution, but hopefully everything will work out. "Alright, I will be at village as soon as I can. Just keep everyone as calm as you can while take care of this. I should not be too long."

"Okay." Hyperion saluted his leader and teleported away.

"So, now what?" Ellie asked.

Gus lead her to the projector. "I'll explain, so just jump through the projector."

Ellie nodded and hopped through the screen and moments later, she came to the other side, Gus flying out after her. They continued down the street.

"We are going to go see my youngest nephew, Markus," Gus told Ellie, "I have to help the other Gremlins. As you already know, Gremlins have been going missing everywhere. Since both Sunstar and Bennet have disappeared, I need to be there to lead the village as well as help search for them."

"I understand," Ellie nods to Gus.

"There he is." Gus said and pointed to the Gremlin sitting on the ground next to the Penny Arcade.

This Gremlin was yellow and wearing a purple suit. He was reading a book and did not notice them right away, but he then recognized his uncle's voice and teleported over to meet them. "Hey Uncle Gus! What's been going on?"

Unlike the other Gremlins, he doesn't seem to have any kind of accent.

"Everything. It's kind of why I am here."

"Really?" Markus suddenly diverts his attention to the she-fox standing next to Gus. "Oh I'm sorry for being rude. I'm Markus." He seems a bit embarrassed.

"Ellie," she answers politely.

"So, why are you two here?"

Gus explains how Ellie's here and how he was going to take her to see Oswald, but then has to change his plans because of the missing Gremlins. "Could you possibly take her to find Oswald?"

Markus's eyes light up at his uncle's request. "Of course!"

"Great! I will try to come back and check later. Thank you so much!" With that, Gus waved goodbye and teleported away, leaving her and Markus.

-()-

"Let's see, Oswald would probably be at Dark Beauty Castle right now. If we hurry, we could probably catch him," Markus says confidently.

"Okay, but how do we get there?" Ellie asked.

"We need to take the train, come on."

Ellie nodded as Markus led her down Mean Street. They got to the end of the street to see a huge stone brick bridge that seemed to span to all the way to Mean Street South. Ellie noticed the bricks were fairly new, so it was a newly- built bridge. They started to cross it.

"You see, after the earthquakes, Mean Street split in half. For a while, there was no way of getting across for a lot of toons, unless you-uh used the D.E.C. Only Gremlins could cross because we can, ya know, teleport, unless you payed to use a balloon that was run by a Gremlin named Tyler. It was slow going since only a few toons could go at one time, so eventually we got the OK to build this bridge." Markus sounded a little awkward, trying to explain. Ellie guessed he didn't talk too awful much.

They approached the end of the bridge and walked the rest of Mean Street until they reached the Train Station.

"All Aboooaard, for Dark Beauty Castle! The next train leaves at 12:35 pm. Folks!" The loudspeaker boomed.

"Two tickets for the next trip," Markus told the train conductor while pulling out a few E-tickets.

"Of course," the conductor says, punching a couple tickets and handing them over.

They go and sit on the bench, waiting for the train. Ellie wonders what this visit will hold.

-()-

**Thanks for reading. Please feel free to review!**


	3. The Kind of Lucky Rabbit

Metal grinding screeches came from them behind them. Sure enough, at 12:35, the train that is to take it's passengers to Dark Beauty Castle was there. The engine was a flat black with gold design, paint chipping away from years of storms and miles of rails. The cars were painted black to match with metal trim.

Markus and Ellie both boarded the first car and sat near the back.

"Tickets please," a horse toon said as he walked up to both of them, wearing a uniform.

They both happily handed the tickets that were paid for and the ticket taker left them in peace.

Now that she could be left alone, Ellie took out Amelia's book from her bag and started to flip through it some more while they took off for the Castle.

Markus's curiosity piqued. "What's that?" He asked as casually as possible.

"Oh this? Well, it's supposed to be a spell book. It belongs to my friend Amelia and it fell with me when I came here, so... I just held onto it," Ellie said.

"Anything helpful?"

"Well, it doesn't seem like a spell book like Amelia had always said it was. She's had this book for a about a year, I think, and she never let me see it. I have no idea why though. What's actually in it? That's a whole other ballpark. It's actually like a reference book about Wasteland. It has all kinds of information about locations, dangers, secrets, spells, and different creature and toons."

"Well, if she's supposed to be a sorceress, why is studying about Wasteland, and how does she even know it exists?" Markus asked, trying to piece together this wild story.

"I sure wish I knew. What's even crazier about this is the articles are written like a journal. You know, using 'I'."

The train hauls itself into the stone brick station that was recently repaired and comes to a halt.

Ellie looks out the window at the Castle Station. "I guess were here."

-()-

They had passed through the courtyards, also freshly bricked and rebuilt form the quakes that had almost collapsed them. There was the main hallway that could take you anywhere in the Castle. The floor was covered with a bright scarlet colored carpet and brand new paintings hung on the walls along with those that had survived through Wasteland's chain of unfortunate events.

Markus was quite surprised at how much of the original structure still stood. From what he had heard, the place was ready to turn to dust before the repairs.

"Jeez, there's so many rooms! Where do we even start?" Ellie gasped in amazement.

"Let's check the Throne Room first, then we should check the Parlor," Markus suggested.

-()-

The Throne Room was a wide-open room, held up by thick stone pillars. The most beautiful stained-glass window lit the room with the shades of joy. Towards the back, there are two thrones on a wide, low platform. One throne appeared to be as old as the castle itself and the other was much newer and more feminine.

Ellie and Markus entered the royal space to find it empty.

"No one's here," Markus said.

"Let's go check the Parlor real fast," Ellie suggested, still pretty optimistic that they will eventually find either Oswald or Ortensia.

They turned to leave when they heard a startling thud that seemed loud enough to shake the entire castle. Both paused as some black liquid had dropped out of the sky and landed with a splat. The puddle started to grow shadowy arms and a body. A full monster had appeared before them and roared.

Markus's eyes widened as he recognized the creature, "Slobber in the castle!"

"Slobber?" Ellie said panicingly. She had little idea of what it was. She turned her head to find an almost empty rack of weapons and run over to grab the sword that still sat on it. She pointed it at the Slobber, but still keeping her distance.

"That's not gonna work!" Markus was searching for something that could help them escape.

"What do you mean?"

"You need paint or thinner to rid of them!" Markus continued to look around for just any amount for paint or thinner, just enough. He teleported over the doorway that leads to the second level. To his surprise, he finds one bucket an corner. "Not that much there," he said to himself, "It's gotta work." Markus flew back over to the Slobber.

At this point Ellie was trying to keep its attention on her, dodging its attacks. She looks over at Markus, gestures her to come over. She runs to him, seeing the bucket in his hands. "You find enough? Now what?"

"Can you just distract him for a few more minutes? His mouth needs to be open so I can dump the thinner in it."

"Okay," Ellie says, "in fact..." she dips the end of her sword in the thinner. "This is to help protect myself. Now, do what you need to do."

Markus nods and teleports above the Slobber, waiting for the right moment.

Ellie swings her sword at the creature, faking a swing to the right.

The Slobber sticks out his needle-like claws to right, then Ellie jams the thinner coated sword in the monster's left side. It let's put a small cry before tearing Ellie away and screeching again.

Markus takes advantage of the opportunity and dumps the thinner down the monster's throat.

The Slobber gags and coughs before melting onto nothingness, leaving the sword behind.

Markus drops the bucket and rushes over to Ellie, who is lying up against the wall and holding her arm. "Ellie!"

She tries to prop herself up, but she is a little dazed from the blow.

Markus looks down at her forearm, which has massive claw marks. "Oh no..."

"What's goin' on here?" a new called form entrance.

Markus's eyes fell on the black toon rabbit wearing blue shorts. "Oswald."

The rabbit's attention goes to the fox Markus is trying to help and his annoyance turns into concern. "What happened?" He runs over to them and helps the fox girl up.

-()-

Oswald leads them to another room in the castle. He goes over to cupboard and brings back a bottle of something, a clean rag, and bandages. He inspects her forearm carefully, then drips some of the liquid from bottle on the rag and gently wipes it on Ellie's arm.

Ellie sighs in the relief. Before, it had felt like a thousand fire tipped needles pierced her arm. Now, the agony and burning subsided.

The rabbit finishes up by wrapping her arm in white clean bandages.

"Thank you," she said,her eyes meeting his in total sincerity.

"It's not a problem. So, you're Ellie, right?"

Ellie nods, "and you're Oswald."

"Yeah. Anyway, what happened? I was in the Parlor when I heard a lot of ruckus coming form the throne room."

Markus's expression changed, as if he was mentally face-palming himself. "It's a long story."

**That's where I'm stopping for now. I am not sure at this point when the next chapter will be out. I just happened to have had some extra time on my hands. Anyway, thanks for reading! Please review!**


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